Helix - another from Duckadang 2007

[[1ponders]]

Slowly pushing through them :lol:

Helix Nebula
300D, ED80 & WO 0.8 FR and Flattener
19/600sec@ISO800, dark subtracted and average combined in Images Plus. Processing and resizing and conversion to jpeg in Photoshop.

[iceman]

Beautiful image Paul! Your work has definitely improved recently.

[joshman]

that's is so cool

[Ric]

Lovely Paul, that has turned out fantastic with great colours and detail.

A very good effort.

[[1ponders]]

Thanks guys, glad you like it. Lots of images and long exposures make a big difference, though I still have a long way to go when it comes to processing. With the signal I collected I should be able to get a lot better.

[acropolite]

Nice result Paul, tracking is spot on as well.:thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Very impressive image Paul. To get that many long exposures is a lot of data, well done. :thumbsup:

[h0ughy]

nice work Mr Ponders - lovely colours and definition. THe stars seem to be a little red - for a non modified camera - something I would expect from mine but not yours? Would that have been as a result of post processing?

[davidpretorius]

from a self confessed planetary nutter, i takes me hats off to you and houghy.

you boys sound like you had a great time and images to match!

[sheeny]

I like it Paul!

Al.

[[1ponders]]

Yep we did have a lot of fun. It is lovely up there under the night sky between midnight and 4:30 in the morning. :D I'm already planning next year. ;)

There is a slight colour gradient in the jpeg h0ughy. It is probably from the processing. After seeing the screen difference between my laptop and Jeanettes new one I'm surprised there aren't more funny colour gradients and casts.

[h0ughy]

DO you have JJJ's lappy there with you?? Yep the truebrite screens are pretty cool:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

No Dave :lol: just going on memory. Nearly bought myself a new 22"er on the weekend, but still tossing up weather to get the big T or not yet. ;)

[LT_Ng]

Hi Paul,

Your image looks very nice. I love the colour. It is seemed that Helix was captured with a modded 300D. Is your 300D a modded one?

LT

[RB]

What a great result Paul !!!
Well done, and that little ED80 is a real performer, great value.

Tracking looks spot on & processing looks great !

:thumbsup:

[[1ponders]]

Hi William. No modded 300D for me, just the plain old standard one.

Thanks Andrew, I was very happy with my rigs tracking over the whole week, it was spot on with less than 0.2 arcsec/min drift when not tracking and pretty well 0.0 when tracking with the only devialtion being the seeing. :D What a great week. ;)

[RB]

I noticed you were getting 10 minute subs and without autoguiding I assume(?).
Thats awesome.

[[1ponders]]

I can do (and have done) 5 to 10 min subs when I've polar aligned this accurate and using this setup (480mm FL) and Canon 300D. But only unguided in DEC, not RA. I always guide in RA as the PE is too poor on my mount for this FL atm. I need to do a tune up on it.

I was doing a fair bit of Seagulling and checking out everyone else so these were autoguided. During the week I left the mount unattended for anything up to an hour and a half at a time so I didn't want to have to go back and check the alignment of the image all the time, so I autoguided.

[h0ughy]

I can vouch for that - bumped in to him on the observing field with Ron et al:D

[jjjnettie]

Lovely work Paul.

[Dr Nick]

Wow! Thats great! ;)